Mind maps that are also YAML.
Edit a mind map as a tree of branches, as plain YAML, or as a notebook of pages — whichever view fits the moment. Changes in one show up in the others. Local-first, scriptable, free, and open source.
title: My day
root:
text: My day
children:
- text: Morning Routine
tags: [routine]
children:
- text: Check overdue items
- text: Due today
- text: Urgent
- text: Important
- text: To-dos
- text: Meetings
children:
- text: Standup
notes: Yesterday / Today / Blockers
The same document as a notebook. In the Notelets view, the tree becomes a table of contents and each node's notes become a page.
Standup
Yesterday / Today / Blockers.
Keep it under 15 minutes.
1:1 with manager
Agenda
- Priorities this week
- Feedback
- Growth / goals
Brainstorming
Ideas
Parking lot
Next steps
Why clobmap?
YAML and tree are the same thing
Most mind-map tools save in some opaque binary format. clobmap's file is a human-readable YAML outline. Open it in vim, diff it in git, paste it into a chat, share it as a string.
Comments survive structural edits
Add, move, or delete nodes from the canvas — the YAML keeps your comments, your spacing, and your field order. AST-level surgery, not a re-serialize.
Keyboard-first
Tab adds a child, Enter a sibling, F2 renames, arrow keys navigate, Cmd+Z undoes. Ten-finger usable; mouse optional.
Local-first
Your maps live on your disk. No accounts, no cloud sync, no telemetry by default. Crash reports are opt-in and the privacy scrubbing is unit-tested.
Notelets: your map as a notebook New
A view where the tree becomes a table of contents and each node becomes a Markdown page. You can scroll through every page or read one at a time, and edit in place. Restructure from the sidebar with the same keys you use on the canvas.
Tags, with a tree of their own New
Tag any node (T) and arrange the tags into their own hierarchy. Click a tag to highlight every match, or filter the map down to a tag's branch. Renames and deletes apply everywhere, and one undo reverses them.
Notes are real Markdown files New
On desktop, each node's notes live as a .md file
next to your map. You can grep them, diff them, and edit them
in any editor, and clobmap picks up changes live. Deleting a
node archives its note file instead of destroying it.
Export anywhere
Export a map as PNG, SVG, or PDF, or export all its notes as a single Markdown file with tags and colors kept. Open several maps in tabs, and let auto-save handle the rest.
Scriptable, and ready for Claude Code New
The desktop app ships with a clobmap command-line tool
that uses the same engine as the app. Edits keep your comments and
formatting, every change can be previewed with
--dry-run, and a batch of edits either fully applies
or doesn't apply at all. You can install it from
Settings → Command-line tool, with no Node or
repository clone needed.
$ clobmap new trip.clobmap.yaml --title "Japan Trip" $ clobmap add-child trip.clobmap.yaml --parent "Japan Trip" --text "Hotels" $ clobmap tag-add trip.clobmap.yaml "Hotels" --tags booked $ clobmap find trip.clobmap.yaml --tag booked Hotels [n2]
Let Claude Code edit your maps. One click in
Settings → Claude Code skill (or
clobmap skill install) teaches Claude Code to use the
CLI. Then you can ask it to “turn this meeting transcript into
a map” or “tag everything that's still open”.
Get clobmap
Use it in your browser, or install a native app for your platform. All builds are signed where the platform allows.
Desktop builds update themselves and include the
clobmap CLI (clobmap-cli on Linux).
iOS app available — TestFlight setup is in progress. Build it
yourself today: see
RELEASING.md.